Residents are FLEEING this State Due to High Taxes!

Residents in the state of California – particularly the Bay Area – are finding that high taxes, housing costs, and a generally high cost of living are forcing them out of the state.

The housing costs and high taxes have prompted a net outward migration from the state, meaning that there are more people leaving the state than are coming in. In fact, according to the state’s finance department, during the year ending June 30, there were 61,100 more people who moved out of the state than moved in. The Mercury News reported that “the so-called ‘net outward migration’ was the largest since 2011, when 63,300 more people fled California than entered.”

Dan Hamilton – the economics director with the Economics Forecasting Center at California Lutheran University – told The Mercury News:

“The main factors are housing costs in many parts of the state, including coastal regions of California such as the Bay Area… California has seen negative outward migration to other states for 22 of the last 25 years.”

A moving consultant Scott McElfresh attributed California’s mass exodus to the cost of living and high taxes:

“They are tired of the expense of living here. They are tired of the state of California and the endless taxes here. People are getting soaked every time they turn around.”

The Federation of Tax Administrators ranks California as the “top taxer with a 12.3 percent rate, unless you make more than $1 million and have to pay 13.3 percent.”

About a third of those surveyed in a recent poll said that they’d like to move out of the state soon. This is one of those unintended consequences of implementing high taxes. In theory, having higher taxes is supposed to mean that the government will be able to raise more money. In reality, it means that people want to leave and find another state that doesn’t burden them as much with trying to extract more from their hard-earned income.